Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson | TED
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN refers to it constantly in schooling debates, as a favorite talk or as the basis for arguments about creativity, though some commenters dispute its conclusions.
What it is
Sir Ken Robinson argues, with humor and stories such as that of choreographer Gillian Lynne, that education systems undermine creativity and should be changed. It is one of the most viewed TED talks.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2017 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec robomartin · 2022-10 · on “Colleges that ditched admission tests find it harder to fairly choose students”
Lots of interesting elements in your comment. > Even with more resources, as long as we're going to insist on mainstreaming students with behavioral problems or who just don't care about the educational process, outcomes for the other students in the rooms are going to be affected. The insistence on equality at all levels and all things is a problem. I know there are people reading this comment thinking "this guy is a bigot". If you are that person, please stop, calm down and think. Everyone understands that there are people who will never been competitive swimmers, basketball players or good dancers. While I am not terrible at sports, I could not become one of those three, no matter what I
Recommends johnisgood · 2022-05 · on “My students cheated... a lot”
Quite sad that nothing came out of [LINK] . Sir Ken Robinson has a lot to say about the education paradigm and why it should be changed, and in what ways. He appeared on TED[1][2], too, since then, and probably elsewhere as well. [1] [LINK] [2] [this video]
Recommends andrei_says_ · 2024-10 · on “Ask HN: What's your favorite YouTube video, ever?”
Russ Olsen, author of Getting Closure, Eloquent Ruby and Design Patterns with Ruby, telling the story of the moon landing as a conference talk. Inspired me beyond measure and brought tears to my eyes. [LINK] —- George Lakoff’s lecture on Moral Politics. Instantaneous understanding of political language and identity politics. Incredibly important, especially today in time of extreme polarization. [LINK] —- Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity [this video]
Cites roceasta · 2017-09 · on “Five-Year-Olds Can Learn Calculus (2014)”
Have you noticed that most adults don't know what nine times seven is? If you ask them on the street they'll mostly either get it wrong or tell you quite rudely to go away. This is despite (and because of) a decade of grind at school. Or have you noticed that people are unable to hold a conversation in a foreign language despite years of 'study' in a classroom? Whereas an enthusiastic individual can pick up basic conversation for themselves in a matter of months. This is because coercion in education is: (1) painful, (2) prophetic, (3) it doesn't work! What happens in real life is that if somebody needs to know something because they are keen to do something else then they will learn it effi
Cites a_d · 2018-04 · on “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”
Bret Victor - Inventing on principle [LINK] Alan Kay - Power of Simplicity [LINK] Steve Jobs - Marketing (unveiling Think Different) [LINK] Robert Cialdini - On Influence [LINK] Peter Thiel - On Zero to One (Notes on Starts Ups or How to Build the Future) [LINK] Naval Ravikant on Reading, Happiness, Systems for Decision Making, Habits, Honesty and More (Farnam Street podcast) [LINK] Josh Wolfe - On "This is who you are up against" podcast [LINK] Richard Feynman - Fun to Imagine [LINK] Paul Graham - Startup school (2008) [LINK] James Burke - Connections (BBC documentary) <No link> Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of the Atom (BBC) [LINK] Elon Musk's 2003 Stanford University Entrepreneurial Thou
Cites kozhevnikov · 2018-09 · on “Ask HN: How can I get my children excited about programming?”
Reminded me of Ken Robinson telling the story of Gillian Lynne [1] in the most popular Ted Talk "Do schools kill creativity?" [1] [this video]
Cites grabbalacious · 2020-02 · on “What's Gone Wrong in Schooling?”
Most thoughtful people seem to agree that school is bad for creativity and that real learning is led by curiosity. [this video] But we still have little idea how curiosity works exactly or how an institution could be turned from an exam factory into something a bit closer to a child's bedroom and computer at home, i.e. to a place of play. For most of life we need permission to play. Parents allocate 'screen time'. At university one is effectively granted permission to do 'curiosity-led' research by an external grant agency. So what does institutionalised play look like? Perhaps something like a university. Yet how much could university life be said to be 'following the fun'? [LINK]
Cites robomartin · 2023-05 · on “U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr”
> High schools can't really do that, unless they are structured more like universities. That's not true. There's a very large gap between graduating 18 year old's who are only good for box-stacking, making coffee or going to college (with a lot of help in all cases) and actually graduating people who can deliver value to an employer and is culturally ready for society. Take critical thinking as an easy example. Or logic, philosophy, art, music, trades and other important areas that would benefit society if exposed during the K-12 period. I say this both as a parent and an employer. The average high school graduate is useless to me, in almost any capacity. The average college graduate isn't v